Palazzi Barbaro, Venice

[3] It belonged to Piero Spiera in the early 15th century, passing through several hands before being acquired by Zaccaria Barbaro, Procurator of St Mark's[4] in 1465.

[2] Gaspari's building housed the Barbaro family's ballroom which included a magnificent interior of Baroque stucco-work, paintings of ancient Roman subject matter, such as Sebastiano Ricci's Rape of the Sabine Women and works by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta.

In the center of the library's ceiling was placed one of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's masterpieces The Glorification of the Barbaro Family, a painting that now resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

In 1524, Isabella d’Este, widow of Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua[10] and the sister of Alfonso I d'Este was living at the Palazzo Barbaro.

[11] After the Barbaro family died out in the middle of the 19th century, the Palazzo was bought by a series of speculators who auctioned off furniture and paintings.

Other members of the "Barbaro Circle" included Bernard Berenson, William Merritt Chase, Isabella Stewart Gardner, Edith Wharton, and Charles Eliot Norton.